Restoration Series #5 - the Restoration of Gospel Power — James Robison

The Restoration of the Church Through Spiritual Gifts

We're moving in a new day in the life of the Church, and there's been a time when we felt compelled to defend what we knew to be so, rather than to simply declare it and live it. We felt we had to defend it.

We felt that we had to promote it, if you please. And that day is over where we have to promote. We're not going to have to promote spiritual gifts. The Church and health will flow in gifts of the Spirit.

They were grace gifts to the Church for the purpose of edifying and building it up. And the feeling that you have to promote these gifts is going to be a thing of the past, because the Holy Spirit's going to promote them.

He's going to just do it. And this is what He's doing right now. And it's just so beautiful to watch how the Lord's doing in people's lives things they didn't even think He would do. He just does it. He's doing things in people's lives they didn't even believe in.

And it's just the neatest thing in all the world to watch how the Lord moves on people. So you're going to move into a time of real rest, even though you'll be carried with the zeal of the Lord. You're going to have a rest and a peace that you're not really any longer to have this feeling that you have to strive against one another and be on guard, everyone against your neighbor, and do not trust anyone your brother.

That day's going to be over. I know there's going to be great upheaval in what we call the Church of the Lord Jesus, because much of the Church is not the Church at all. It just uses the name. But He's going to tear down and shake down everything that's not Him.

He's going to shake everything that can be shaken. And the Church is going to be one in Christ. And it's going to be a sovereign work of God as we receive Him. And we do not refuse Him who speaks from heaven.

We're just going to find ourselves being carried by the Spirit into oneness all over the world. We're going to be one. And you're going to know that you can, in fact, trust one another. If you have your Bible, I want you to open it to the fourth chapter of Ephesians.

Personal Transformation and the Garden of God

This is where the Lord is impressing me to share with you. And I'm going to share a little of what the Lord did in my life in the last two and a half years. I've been preaching now 22 years. And two and a half years ago, the Lord brought about a great change in my life.

And I'm going to share a little bit tonight about what the Lord did in my life. And I'm going to share with you how the Lord began to work in my garden and my field. This is His field. By the way, folks, this is the promised land right here.

This is the land to be possessed. This is it. And I have a lot of weeds and a lot of briars and a lot of thorns growing in my garden. And the Lord burned those out of me. And He began to grow some lilies.

And He began to grow some flowers in my life. And He wants me to look like a bouquet of His glory. And we're going to talk about how to get rid of the briars and the weeds and the thorns. An awful lot of them growing in Christians' lives.

And you know, if you're really a Christian, that's one of the real proofs that you are a Christian. You really don't like weeds. I mean, if you like them, your garden's not God's yet. You're still the enemy's property.

You're His bond slave. And the Lord wants to free you so you can be His. God's garden. The garden of God. And He's going to grow good fruit in your garden. We're going to talk about how to get all the weeds out.

By the way, I don't know too many Christians who don't still have a weed or two. And don't be touchy about your weeds. Be glad when somebody will help you get them out. One of the things that we need to know is that when we're helping our fellow man get the weeds out of his life, we need to tiptoe carefully through the lilies lest we crush one of them on the way to get the weed.

We have a tendency to trample one another. I still know some people that spot some of my weeds every now and then. And I want to say, be careful there. When you're going after my weed, don't step on my little lilies that are growing over here.

Because I am growing some lilies. I really am. I'm growing some beautiful, beautiful lilies. And so are you. But I'm going to help you tonight as an instrument of the Lord to get the weeds out. And the briars.

And it's going to be fun. Ephesians chapter 4 is a picture of how the church is to function in harmony and to be built up in love. I believe you find an expression here of the answer to the prayer of Jesus.

This is more than a possibility. It's an imperative. The only way the church can be built up is to be built up in love. The only way that faith works is by love. It's the only way. It is the only way that we fulfill all the law in a word.

And that's that we love one another. It is the only way we heed the commandments of God by keeping the greatest. That's you should love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is a day of restoration.

Repentance and the Restoration Promised in Acts 3

I'll tell you what. Before we look through Ephesians 4, just turn over to Acts 3. And let me call your attention to a passage that's become very special to me in recent days. Acts 3. And we're going to be in reading at verse 19.

I tell you, when preaching gets in its purest form, all the preacher is going to be is a pointer. He's going to say, look at so and so in the Bible. And you look and say, oh, that's wonderful. And then he'll just say, look over here.

And you'll say, oh. Because the Spirit's going to reveal what God's saying to the church. And that's the only kind of church the gates of hell do not prevail against. That's the church that's built on revelation knowledge where the Spirit imparts the truth.

You cannot. And man has tried futilely, feebly, and to his own demise. He has tried to reduce this book to a systematic means of interpreting and understanding it. In other words, he's tried to reduce the supernatural spiritual book of holy God to man's finite understanding.

The same Spirit necessary to inspire this book is necessary to impart this book and plant it in your heart. It's a spiritual book. And we have literally made our systems of interpretation the major source of authority rather than the Word of God.

We do not even believe in most churches today that every believer can understand this Word. He has to have someone who's been trained to explain it to him. Jesus said, it's necessary for me, the one who wrote it, the one who is it, the one who expresses it, the living Word, it's essential for me to leave that I be able to send another of the same kind to you who will guide you to all truth.

Now why didn't Jesus tell us that we needed a book this thick to tell us why he didn't mean what he said in one verse that big? Why didn't Jesus tell us that the only way we could understand this book would be to follow man's opinions and philosophies?

Because that's the one way you won't understand what this Word says. Because the Holy Spirit will teach you this Word. And the teachers, the apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, and evangelists will be used in correction, in rebuke, in reproof, in exhortation with long-suffering and doctrine to correct.

But they are not your source. The Holy Spirit is your source. God will teach you this Word. And he'll write this Word on your heart. You can understand it as well as I can. I'm not going to spend my life going up into the Holy of Holies in the presence of God and come down and tell you what God said.

I'm going to spend the rest of my life telling you to go up on the Holy of Holies into the presence of God and hear God for yourself. I'm going to teach you by the grace of God to have the ears of a disciple.

I'm going to make disciples of Jesus out of you, not disciples of James Robinson or somebody else. You need to hear Jesus. You can hear him as well as I can. You may hear him better. I've got a lot of interference around me, people trying to influence me all the time.

Some of you may be able to get over a little more along with the Lord and hear him better than I can. And I'm going to tell you something. When you do, I'm going to hear him through you. Because the day of big shots is over in the church, folks.

No more big shots. No more superstars. It's just Jesus. Jesus. He's the center. It's just Jesus. And we're just going to receive from the least to the greatest. We're going to receive. It's going to be so exciting.

Jesus' Ministry of Restoration and the Living Temple

Well, this is what the Lord is showing me. He's showing me that the ministry of Jesus in the world today. And I want you to understand this because I really believe the Lord revealed this to me. The ministry of Jesus in the earth today is the ministry of restoration.

That was the ministry he announced in Luke 4. And it is still his ministry. It is the ministry of restoration. That's his ministry. Now, what does that mean? That means that he's restoring the body to health.

He's restoring his desecrated, divided, decentious, defeated body to spiritual health. That's exactly what he's doing. He is restoring the church. He is restoring the New Testament church. And you're going to see that what he said of Israel, the new covenant people, those with whom he made an eternal covenant, he is going to fulfill in the lives of the children of promise.

And he's building a temple, all right. And there are many people who spend needless hours watching over in the Middle East for him to build a temple. I don't care if they build 100 temples. That's not the one God's watching.

God is watching the temple that's being built with living stones. It is in that temple his glory will come and fill. And so the church of Jesus Christ is being restored to spiritual health. And I want to tell you that because Jesus has accomplished a work in my life, I have been totally freed from this escapist mentality.

I'm already free. I'm not looking for somebody to come get me out of something. I want to tell you something, my dear friend. I'm walking with the fourth man, and he's sufficient in the most intense fire that the king of this world can ever build.

I walk with the fourth man. It's not Moses in the fire. It's not Elijah in the fire. It's Jesus in the fire. He walks with me. He talks with me. He is my shepherd, and I shall not want. I fear no evil.

He's with me, rod and staff, directing me, preparing a table before me in the presence of countless enemies, anointing my head with oil, and my cup runs over forever and ever. His goodness and mercy will follow me and endure forever, and I'm dwelling in the house of the Lord.

I am the house of the Lord. And he fills his temple with his glorious presence. And he is restoring me, and I'm going to do the ministry of Jesus. I am doing the ministry of Jesus. He is doing his ministry through me.

He told me two and a half years ago he changed my life. He said, 20 years, I've seen your ministry. He said, how would you like to see mine? He was not even a little impressed with mine. I've been greatly impressed with his.

Healing, Faith, and the Authority of Jesus

I'll tell you, the Lord's just doing what he says he does. You know, he startled me the other day. I've been seeing many people healed. My wife and I were shopping the other day. By the way, I do better getting people healed in shopping centers than I do in churches.

The two toughest places I've found to get people healed is church and hospitals. Isn't that sad? I do much better on the streets, parking lots, shopping malls, homes. Isn't that incredible? There's a village atmosphere that prevails in hospitals and churches, an atmosphere of unbelief.

It shouldn't be that way. My wife and I were shopping the other day, and we bought an object over in Fort Worth, an item. The man that sold it to us, he couldn't talk. It was just pitiful. He just stammered and stuttered, carried on, and just couldn't say anything.

He had two little children there, and I could tell they wished he could talk. He's obviously a smart man. He was an administrative man, but he couldn't talk. He just stammered and tried. Boy, my heart just broke, just broke.

I had to move over across the store. It was very crowded. I got to the side, and I said, Lord, I just hurt. I don't want to embarrass him. He's having trouble talking. People are watching. Lord, show me what to do.

My wife was writing a check, and I could tell that the compassion of Jesus was coming up in her. I could tell we were one. I could tell our spirits were in agreement for him. I said, Lord, I need to get him out of here a minute.

Just show me what to do. He walked around the counter, and he picked up the object and indicated he'd take it to the car. I didn't need him to take it to the car. It wasn't any big object, but I needed him to take it to the car.

He took it to the car, and I opened the trunk and put the item in the trunk and closed the lid. I looked at him. I said, What's your name? He said, I'm literally as best I can. I'm quoting what he said.

I thought he was trying to say Bible. He never said anything. He pulled his billfold out and handed me a card. His name was Ken. I said, Did this happen when you were a boy? I said, What caused it? He stumbled around and said, Holy, holy, oh.

And I said, I love you. Never seen you before. I said, I want to pray for you. Could I pray for you, please? Yes. He nodded. I laid my hands up on his neck. It was 103 degrees outside on the parking lot, my wife sitting in the car.

I knew she was a Greek. I laid my hands up on his neck and I began to pray in the name of Jesus that he would just heal his voice so that he could talk. And take away the stammering tongue. His muscles tightened as rigidly as cement.

And then they relaxed under my hands. And the Spirit of the Lord said, Rebuke the stuttering, stammering tongue. Rebuke it. And all of the forces of hell and all of the powers of darkness pressed in against me not to do that simple thing of obeying Jesus to speak to the mountain, to rebuke the obstacle.

But in a moment of love and obedience, the Spirit of God welled up in me and I said, I rebuke the stammering, stuttering tongue. I rebuke it in Jesus' name. And I command him to speak clearly now in the name of Jesus.

And I took my hands down and I put my arms around him and I held him and I said, I love you. And I turned him loose and he said, I want to thank you so much. I want to thank you so very much. I can't tell you how grateful I am.

He walked around to the window where my wife was sitting and leaned over and said, I can't tell you how much I appreciate this. Would you please come back? I want to thank you so much. And turned and walked away.

He spoke like Ronald Reagan. He sounded like an artist. Do you know what Jesus started with me with recently? Do you know that I was carried so in the Spirit, so restored to such intimacy with Jesus that just after the Lord had set me free two and a half years ago that I went through a period of six months in my life that I cannot recall.

And I have no one who's been able to help me find anyone that this is not true of. I cannot recall a single person that I prayed with in person or by telephone who was not healed. Virtually instantly as best I can tell.

Now, that's not always the way healing comes. Sometimes it's progressive. Sometimes it's over a long period of time. Sometimes it's just natural biological healing built in your own body, which is the Lord's too.

But as I would pray for people, some were dying. At least three, maybe four were dying. They were healed instant. I'm talking about got up. One of them in the cardiac center in DeBakey's Hospital with his heart blown out.

Well, up, gone, perfect, absolutely healed. I watched God for six months, not a single person. And I said, Lord, what was happening right there? Let me tell you what happened. I was so in relationship and fellowship with Jesus, all I could hear was Jesus.

All I could see was where he was looking. Do you know that if you had come to me during that stretch of time and asked me to go pray for someone, I want you to understand the impact of what I'm about to say.

This is the supernatural. This is the miracle of it all. If you had come to me and said, come over here, I want you to come pray for this person. From the time you and I left here to go there, I don't care if it was five minutes or three hours.

From the time we left to go, the thought never got to my brain. The impulse never got there that they might not get well. That thought never entered my mind. All I could hear was Jesus. Now, I'm going to tell you, you can't preach that into people.

You can't teach that into people. That's relationship. That's the prevailing word. The Lord startled me recently because I'm still seeing a lot of people healed. The beautiful thing is that I've watched myself decrease.

I'm already such a focal point in the body of Christ. People watch me continuously. The Lord has let me know that he will not share his glory with idols and no flesh is going to glory in his presence.

And no person is going to get the credit for what he's going to do through a healthy body. And I'm continually decreasing and I'm watching the greater glory manifest all around us. Out among children and among the laity rather than on the platform.

And I understand that. And I believe the greater glory will be out here. I don't think you're going to be able to trace the miracles of Jesus anymore to somebody's flesh. It's no longer going to be somebody with the gift of.

It's going to be the body with the gifts of. And the body is going to flow in that health. And you're not going to tie it on anybody. It's just Jesus through his people. But the Lord startled me recently.

I had found comfort in saying, well, we're praying for the sick. You know what Jesus said to me just as clearly as he's ever said anything in the spirit? And when he speaks in the spirit, that's louder than audible.

I don't need an audible voice to get a clear word. I hear him. You know what he said to me? He said nowhere in the gospels, nowhere in my teaching did I ever tell anyone to go pray for the sick. He said much of my church is taking tremendous comfort in the fact they're praying for the sick.

He said they take comfort in the fact that they're anointing with oil. Some people have so much oil anointed on them they can slide right into their grave. They're soaked in oil. But they're sick. I don't find one account where Jesus ever rebuked a sick person for not getting well.

But I can find a very sharp rebuke where he rebuked some disciples who couldn't get a sick boy well. And I'm going to tell you something. He didn't say this kind comes out not but by prayer and fasting because he was telling you you've got a tough demon.

None of them are tough. You've got more authority over the demons of hell than you've got over your little children. None of them are tough. Don't give a demon that much credit to think you've got to go and pray and fast to get rid of a demon.

Kick him out. You say, well then why did he say this kind cometh out not but by prayer and fasting? This kind of unbelief cometh out not but by prayer and fasting. In other words, you want to get in a place where you can hear God?

Deny your flesh. Deny yourself. Call a solemn assembly. Consecrate a fast. Bring this body into subjection. And pray that you can hear the thoughts of God. Then you will speak the word having heard. That's the only way faith operates.

You've got to hear it. Then it works. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. Get the channels clear so you can hear God. The church is being restored to New Testament life, authority, and power.

Spiritual Gifts, Spiritual Hearing, and the Greater Glory

Right now, that's the ministry of Jesus. The church is going to flow in power. You're going to flow in power. Listen, every one of you here in Jesus' name are going to heal the sick. You're never to be affected by what you see or don't see.

The fact you do see is no more proof than if you don't see. You do not base what you believe on what you see. You base it on the forever settled word of the living God. If you never see. Because what you see is temporal anyway.

That what you do not see is the real. Get to where you can see in the invisible. Get to where you can hear. The atmosphere is saturated with the sounds of the spirit realm. Get to where you can hear them.

Get to where you can pick up. I'm learning this. I was taught you couldn't do this. I'm learning it. I've got some friends that have such keen spiritual antennas. I find myself just watching them sometimes.

God, how do they do that? And the Lord said, you can do it. You know what? I can. Preached to about 4 ,000 people in Kansas City. There was a girl that we were just praying. There were probably 1 ,000 people who had come forward in the first invitation.

This girl just went out. A lady caught her. Nobody was talking about this. We don't touch people. I can tell you some people are so sick of the flesh. So sick of hearing people talk about Pentecostal power and all you got.

It's an old shaking hand trying to shake something out of somebody. It's a bunch of phony baloney and we know it and the whole church knows it. Now God will shake the fire out of some people. But you don't have to act like you're shaking and act like you got it when you ain't got it.

Just because you had it don't mean you got it. So sick and tired of people talking about falling under the power of God. What they fell under was a nearly broken neck. Somebody pushing them down. When God gets ready to knock somebody down, he doesn't need your muscle.

This lady went out and stayed out for two hours. They carried her back and laid her in a side room, covered her up with blankets. I walked in the room with her and the Lord told me her life story when I walked in the room with her.

He just unfolded her life for me. I walked out of the room. I told the people God was healing her emotional scars. You know why some people are taken out? Some fall because of the incredible power of God.

They're just knocked and fell as dead like John did. They fall like Paul did. Blind but impacted and fall to the earth. They fall like Peter did and into a trance which he went into three times. You know the rumor that got out on Peter when he was knocked into that trance?

We understand you've been eating with the uncircumcised. He said, hang in there dudes. A whole lot more happened than that. You know what will get out on you if you have a supernatural spirit? I heard you went charismatic.

Let me tell you something. It doesn't matter what kind of label they hang on you. Just wear one. Wear Jesus. Don't boast in any other label. You'll conform to that crowd and you'll miss Christ. The Lord told me her life story.

I asked later in the day. She told the associate pastor and the pastor knew her. Everything God told me, I said, here's what God told me about her. The pastor and his associate liked to fall out of their chairs.

God told me her life story. You know why God takes some people out like that when they fall under the power? The same reason Jesus took some people out of the village. He took them out so he could do work.

And he got them out of the atmosphere of unbelief. He's taking some people out now. And he's healing them. And then he's bringing them back. It's going to happen. He doesn't need your help to do it. He's just going to do his works.

He's going to restore so you can hear. He's going to tell you what he's saying. You can hear him. He knows. He's not caught off guard. There's nothing hidden that he doesn't want to reveal. Let him. Understand you can hear him.

Yes, you'll be testing the Spirit. You're going to get some interference. You'll pick up on a bad word sometimes. It won't be him, but he'll show you. Don't panic. And remember, when you see somebody that's in the flesh, oh, you've always been repulsed by the flesh just like me.

I've always been repulsed by your flesh. It's been mine. I've been kind of fond of. Your flesh has always bothered me. I'm maturing now. It's getting to where my flesh is bothering me. That's maturity.

When you see that flesh manifest, remember, don't trample their lilies on the way to get the weed. Some of them have never been accepted before. Don't stomp the little ones. Be careful. How you treat them.

Repentance, Redemption, and the Times of Refreshing

What he's restoring is to health. Do you know what his message is today? It's a message of repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. You'll never have restoration. You'll never have restoration without repentance.

The church has to repent, and that's where repentance begins, just like judgment is going to begin. We've got to repent. And you know what the mission of Jesus is today? The mission of Jesus is redemption.

His ministry is restoration. His message is repentance, and his mission is redemption. He's going to redeem everything the enemy has ever tainted and blighted and damaged. And it's a beautiful day. And look what he says in Acts chapter 3, beginning at verse 19.

Repent, therefore, and return. I'm reading from the New American Standard. That your sins may be wiped away in order that the times of refreshing may come. Do you know what this is? It's a time of refreshing.

It's a time when you get under the shower and you receive a spirit through others who are chosen to minister. It's a time of refreshing. In order that the times of refreshing may come from what? The presence of the Lord.

Do you know how you get refreshed? Get in the presence of the Lord. When you begin to sing praises and the enemy flees and the presence of the Lord comes, you're refreshed. When I'm walking obedience to the Lord, I don't get tired unless God is saying it's time to go rest.

And brother, when he says shut her down and rest, you better. Because if you destroy the temple of God, he said I'll destroy you. When he says sleep, sleep. When he says sit, sit. When he says stand, stand.

I'll tell you something, folks. You don't need to think you're going to see somebody at the gate of the temple beautiful, lame, and say in the name of Jesus, rise and be healed. If you haven't been faithful in the little things like to sit when he said sit and stand when he said stand.

And study when he said study. And play with your children when he said play with them. And love your wife when he said love her. And that means hold her sometimes, not just be sexually expressive. It means hold her.

It means sometimes listen to her. Just hear her. You don't do that, you won't hear him say in the name of Jesus, rise and be healed. Because you are not faithful in those things which we consider the small.

You'll never be ruler in those things we consider great. God tells me to play with my children. I play with my children. If I don't, I disobey God. That's a righteous act to play with your children. It's a righteous act to listen to your wife.

It's a work of righteousness to communicate with one another and to love one another. Look what he says. It comes from the presence of the Lord that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration.

This is it, folks. The period of restoration of all things about which God spoke with the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient time. Everything he said over in the Old Testament about his covenant people, he's going to fulfill.

And I'll show you something very interesting. We have missed much of what this Old Testament is saying because we put it all in historical, national Israel. And we don't understand what God is saying to us, the children of promise.

I'm personally convinced, and I'm not, quote, a theologian in the context of what we define theology. But I'm going to tell you, I am convinced, and I would gladly sit with the scholars who will sit with an open mind.

And I'll go through this with you prayerfully. But you can't talk to anybody that thinks he knows everything. Remember that. You think you know. You don't know as you ought. And knowledge puffs up and makes you arrogant.

And that's what we've got a lot of folks who think they've got it all figured out. And they box God in, put him on a chart, and box him. And he won't fit in the chart. You can't even build him a house that will hold him.

How are you going to get him on a chart or a cart? He won't ride. He rides on sanctified shoulders. That's the only place he'll go. I'll tell you what I'm convinced of. I'm convinced that much of Isaiah is not even talking about the nation Israel at all.

It's talking about the church of Jesus Christ. It's talking about us. You just look at it. Open your eyes and look for yourself. Just see. Just look at it. You go over in 1 Peter 1, and you'll find that he says, These prophets who were carried by the Spirit knew that they were not serving themselves but us when they testified of the glories to come.

They weren't even serving themselves when they wrote it in their day. They knew it. They were serving us. That's us. That's us. That's winds right here. That's us. That's church. That's us. That's who they were serving.

That Bible gets alive and gets excited when you realize it's written to you and not just written to a bunch of people that got their fist clenched in the face of God. And that's what they've got. They got their fist clenched in the face of God.

And I'm going to tell you God will never bless a people with a fist clenched in his face. I don't care who you are. He says the curse is on you. In other words, the effect of your disobedience is manifest in your lives.

Continue on. He may send Jesus the Christ whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration, which is now, about which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets in ancient times. And then you see the quote from the Old Testament, a very definite reference to what God's doing.

And I believe this is the day of restoration, and I believe we're going to see Ephesians 4 in reality. So let's just turn over there for a moment and look at it. In the first part of Ephesians, you find Paul exhorting us in the fourth chapter to walk in a manner worthy of the calling.

Unity, Forbearance, and the Divided Church

And we've been called to oneness in Christ. We've been called to Christlikeness. We've been called to discipleship, to do what he says. And we can only do this if we walk in verse 2 with humility and with gentleness, with patience, and show forbearance.

We show forbearance to one another. I'm watching many people who, in the name of conservative theology, in the name of fundamentalism, can hardly wait to get their heel, not on the back of the devil, but get their heel in the face of other believers.

Right now, I predict that there is an onslaught that's about to occur in the denomination of which I've been a part that's going to be one of the most appalling things that the world has ever watched.

And that's going to be the absolute assault of believer upon believer in Baptist and particularly Southern Baptist rites. In their largest publication, they have, in their oldest and mother's seminary, and in the largest seminary, they are declaring holy war on what they call the conservative and the fundamentalist.

But the fact is, the conservative and fundamentalist declared holy war on them, too. And the tragedy of all tragedies is that in both elements, there is not the desire for reconciliation on the part of many of them, but a desire for the destruction, and they want to destroy one another.

And God has already prophesied of these people. He said, when you bite and devour one another, you're going to be consumed by one another. And the truth is that many in these ranks have spent many years teaching people why they will not like or accept other parts of the body, charismatic, Pentecostal, or somebody else from a different place or persuasion, who may be seeing and hearing a little differently.